Urbana consolidating but not dissolving French dual-language program

Jan. 28—URBANA — Seven years later, Brian Gumisiriza remembers the many challenges his family faced after making the long journey from Uganda to Urbana, so his wife could pursue her Ph.D. at the University of Illinois.

"I came with a degree in law, I got a master's degree, but no law firm here could hire me as a professional lawyer," he said. "We struggled to fit in that one-culture, one-language community, and I don't want my daughter to be in that same pocket" if she were to one day move elsewhere.

She'd be better prepared if she ever did, thanks in large part to the unique French dual-language program offered by the Urbana school district starting in kindergarten and continuing throughout the elementary level.

Declining enrollment and a change of venue for the district's Spanish dual-language students had educators and parents expressing concern in recent weeks about the future of the French program.

Superintendent Jennifer Ivory-Tatum told The News-Gazette that district administration remains "committed to providing French dual-language support to all current students enrolled in the program," but will combine its kindergarten and first-grade cohorts into the same classroom next school year.

That means the French dual-language program, which has been housed at Yankee Ridge Elementary since 2018, will soon run with one fewer teacher and drop from four classrooms to three, following the combining of other grades this school year.

The change — along with the possibility that the program will move into the building where the Spanish dual-language program will be housed next school year — derives from a need to be "realistic" and "creative" about challenges the program faces to its source of funding, Ivory-Tatum said during a school board meeting this month.

Plenty of benefits

When a school has more than 20 students who are non-native English speakers but speak the same alternate language at home, the district is required by state law to provide them a "transitional bilingual program," Urbana's director of secondary multilingual programs, Joe Wiemelt, said during an informational session on the program this month.

Urbana's French program both fulfills that legal requirement and exceeds it by incorporating native-English-speaking students.

The stated goal of the program is to teach students to become bilingual and biliterate in English and French. Classrooms are made up of students whose native languages are English, French or Lingala, the latter a common language among Urbana's Congolese population.

Hannah Gibes, a French literacy interventionist who joined Urbana's program in 2021, said students receive at least a 90-minute lesson in French writing and phonics every morning, with subjects like math, science and social studies typically taught in English in the afternoon.

Gibes said research shows that students learn English faster when they receive instruction in their native language, and that dual-language programs tend to bring higher test scores and lower behavioral issues in class.

"Something that has been brought up for years and years in Urbana is our low test scores. Our test scores are miles ahead of everyone else," Gibes said of the program. "And it's not because our students come from necessarily more privileged backgrounds. We have a lot of kids whose families are refugees, but they're scoring above their peers who are in monolingual classrooms."

Parents who are native French or Lingala speakers emphasized that it's important to them to be able to communicate with their children in French and have them be able to remain connected to French-speaking family members who live in the countries they emigrated from.

"I feel like people might say 'If the children are from a household where the parents speak French, maybe the parent can teach them,' but it's not that easy," said Sonia Padonou, who moved to Urbana from the West African country of Benin in 2017 and has a daughter in the French program. "When they're here, they prefer to speak English because it's easier for them."

Felix Ayanbode, who moved to Urbana from Nigeria in 2019, drives his daughter to and from Yankee Ridge every day, even though they live closer to King Elementary.

The program is important to him because "being able to communicate with my daughter in French would bring fulfillment to me," Ayanbode said. "It is a very big goal that I want to achieve. And I feel it would give her a head-start in life because this is the age where children can pick up foreign languages easily."

The multicultural aspect of the program is what sold Collin Ruud on it.

"The reason why my children, who are native English speakers, are in the program is so that they can learn another language but also be a part of an international community," he said. "To understand that there are other experiences, there are communication barriers that we want to break down, and I love the fact they can do that."

Funding formulas

Despite strong support from parents of students currently in the program, enrollment from students with francophone backgrounds has fluctuated in recent years.

To join the program, students must enter in kindergarten or first grade.

In the 2020-21 school year, the program's kindergarten class had seven native French speakers. That number was nine in 2021-22, five the year after that and six this school year.

Enrollment of students with francophone backgrounds is crucial to sustaining the program because it relies on funding from two state grants — evidence-based funding and Title III — which specifically provide money to districts teaching English to bilingual children.

Gibes said the district also cited low francophone student enrollment for why the program's first- and second-grade classes were combined this school year, in addition to the third- and fourth-grade classes.

Next year, all French program students will share a classroom with another grade.

"We have classes of 10 and normal enrollment is 20," said Florence Mathieu, a first-grade teacher in the program. "We can't keep living like that because it's not healthy for the kids. They should be getting instruction at their grade level, and combining grades is like we're going back to a one-room schoolhouse. It's just not fair to them."

But combined classes aren't new for Yankee Ridge, Ivory-Tatum said, noting that previous "shifts in housing in the neighborhood" years ago caused a large decrease in student enrollment at the elementary school and the implementation of more split classrooms.

"That is a remedy that the district often uses," the superintendent said. "I know splits are not the ideal mode of instructing students, but it is definitely something we can continue to support. We'll work with the staff, we'll try to put as many supports in place that we can."

In order to receive state funding, the program's classes currently consist of a roughly 50/50 split in students with French- and English-dominant backgrounds. English-dominant students cannot be the majority in any class.

As it currently stands, the French program has 39 students with French- or Lingala-dominant backgrounds and 20 students with English-dominant backgrounds.

Some parents and educators have questioned why the district is requiring that 50/50 cap, suggesting that if more English-dominant students were allowed to join, it would solve the low-enrollment issue.

But doing that would cause the program to be reclassified as a foreign-immersion model, which would run the risk of the district not being able to access state funding, said district spokeswoman Katherine Tellez.

Ivory-Tatum affirmed that the district is not looking to offer a foreign-immersion model next year because of its other academic priorities — namely student achievement and curriculum and professional development.

Guadalupe Ricconi, the district's director of multilingual programs, said that "is something that we can definitely talk about" as the district continues to monitor changes in the population of French/Lingala-speaking families.

The superintendent said in an email that the district will continue to monitor the program's enrollment numbers "to determine future needs."

"Should we reach a point that we need to implement the Transitional Bilingual Program option only instead of dual language, we would maintain our commitment to the K-5 program to any student/family that has started in dual language, in addition to offering French-language arts classes at the secondary level," Ivory-Tatum said.

Joining schools

Gibes said she felt excited by the district's statement that it is not dissolving the French program, but disappointed that another class will be combined — particularly because administrators projected that there will be nine students with a French-dominant background eligible to join the kindergarten class next school year.

If all nine enroll, that could provide a normal classroom of 18 students and justify a dedicated classroom for kindergarten students, who Gibes said must learn very different skills than first-graders.

Ivory-Tatum said the district will work with families of francophone students eligible to join the kindergarten class to make sure they understand how much they can grow in the program. Urbana is "definitely" committed to the combination-grade model for at least the next two years, she added.

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School administrators also talked about two options for the future of the French program: Keeping it in a building where other monolingual classes are taught, like Yankee Ridge, or adding the three French classrooms to the 21 Spanish dual-language classrooms the school board voted on Jan. 9 to move into a yet-to-be-decided building next school year.

Concerning the latter option, the district is seeking input from consultants and the public on whether to move the French program. Administrators will likely make their recommendation in April.

"If we do join the Spanish dual-language program, we would have more of a multilingual academy I feel like they do in Champaign, and that might help us recruit more students and have less behavior programs all around in the building," Mathieu said.

However, Mathieu added, if the district isn't "proactive" about growing enrollment, the French program is going to "die out."

Ultimately, Gibes said she and other educators in the French program believe enrollment may be down because parents are unaware of the program, and those who don't speak English may not know how to sign their children up.

Despite the challenges, she said the program is worth being a district priority.

"We would just invite anyone and everyone who is French-speaking family to join, because we really believe the program is a positive asset to our community," Gibes said.